Policy & Regulation

Tornado Cash Developer Roman Storm’s Trial Delayed Until April

Published

11 months ago

November 3, 2024

The upcoming felony trial of Twister Money developer Roman Storm has been postponed till April as a substitute of a beforehand scheduled begin date in December, a New York decide dominated Friday.

The four-month delay provides the events time to resolve a disagreement over knowledgeable witness disclosures that started final month, when Decide Katherine Polk Failla of the Southern District of New York (SDNY) ordered the events to launch data to debate which knowledgeable witnesses it might name to testify within the upcoming trial.

Storm’s authorized staff, led by Brian Klein of Waymaker LLP, countered Decide Failla’s order Oct. 14 submitting with the court docket, arguing that such a disclosure would present the protection’s hand and “severely prejudice Mr. Storm.”

Along with doubtlessly harming Storm’s protection, Klein’s letter to the court docket urged that Decide Failla’s ruling could have violated one of many federal guidelines that regulate felony process. Primarily, Klein argued that the federal government can’t legally compel the protection to disclose the names of its knowledgeable witnesses except the protection has requested the identical data from the prosecution. Storm’s protection “deliberately made no such request,” Klein wrote, in an effort to maintain their witness checklist personal.

Storm’s authorized staff has filed a mandamus petition with the U.S. Courtroom of Appeals for the Second Circuit — a request for an injunction from a better court docket to a decrease court docket to primarily compel them to adjust to a regulation or sure to stop illegal actions. in overturning Decide Failla’s order. A listening to on Storm’s mandamus petition is scheduled for Nov. 12.

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Storm’s trial will now begin on April 14 and is predicted to final two weeks.

Storm has been charged three fees associated to his work on the crypto-mixing service Twister Money: conspiracy to facilitate cash laundering, conspiracy to function an unlicensed cash transmitter, and violating sanctions. He faces as much as 45 years in jail if convicted on all counts.